Lenovo Adds T440 and T440S Ultrabooks To Its ThinkPad Lineup

In addition to the high-end X240 ultraportable, Lenovo has launched the T440 and T440S to its ThinkPad lineup. Both machines are 14” notebooks with larger trackpads, HD displays, optional dedicated graphics, Intel Haswell processors, and up to 17 hours of rated battery life. The T440 and T440S notebooks can also be outfitted with NVIDIA GT 720M or 730M dedicated GPUs respectively. Unfortunately, the SKUs with NVIDIA graphics will not be available in North America. The T440S is the higher-specced unit of the two, and both notebooks will be available in October.

The Lenovo T440 is a four pound, 21mm thick 14” ultrabook. It can be configured with an HD+ touchscreen display, Intel Haswell i5 CPU with HD 4400 graphics, up to 12GB of DDR3L memory, and a 1TB hard drive or a 512GB SSD. Other features include a 720p webcam, Dolby Digital Plus with Advanced Audio 2 technology, Intel Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, and 4G LTE ratios. IO includes mini Display Port, VGA, two USB 3.0, one SD card reader, and a RJ45 Ethernet jack.

The T440 will be available at the end of October with a starting price of $899.

Stepping up from the T440 to the T440S gets you some extra features and a lighter laptop thanks to a carbon fiber chassis. The ThinkPad T440S is a 14” notebook that is 20.45mm thick and weighs 3.5 pounds. The notebook can be configured with an Intel Core i7 Haswell processor, a 1920 x 1080 touchscreen display, three USB 3.0 ports (instead of the two on the T440), and Dolby Digital Plus with Home Theater 4 audio technology.

The faster and lighter ThinkPad T440S will also be available at the end of October with a starting MSRP of $1,149.

These are business notebooks. Aesthetics are not a priority. Function over form.

Personally, I like the more utilitarian look of the ThinkPad series, they're immediately identifiable.

Besides, what kind of superficial elitist would "laugh" at someone for buying and using one of the most robust and well-known productivity notebooks. They're not "pretty," but I think "bland" might be a better descriptor than "hideous."

If you want to look cool buy a flashy sony or macbook. I've owned Thinkpads for years and they have for the most part proven to be durable, reliable, and possess the right mix of performance/business-savvy features vs. size and weight. Most of my science and engineering colleagues feel the same. These things are built for the professionals!

If you didn't notice yet this is not a beauty contest. Paint it pink - maybe that way the "select" audience in your local Starbucks would think is cool. This is a clean & simple design meant for real people doing real things not busy posting on social media sites a lot of irrelevant crap. My 2 cents on the matter.
I used previous versions for quite a bit now and I was thoroughly impressed with the battery life and robustness of these machines. Hopefully they didn't dropped these standards.
Will be getting a new (for work) in Jan/Feb 2014 and can't wait for it.

The international space station has three of them. I agree, only a moron would laugh at the conservative military spec. tested ThinkPad, that will easily out live most anything out there. The scalability is up to 12GB ram, 512GB SSD drive, or 1TB HHD drive. And 17 hour hot swappable battery? Who else is doing this? Lenovo, a $34 billion dollar company that is world's largest pc manufacturer for 160 countries, definitely has all my future business. And the OneLink docking truly kicks everyone out of this pro ball game of champions and wannabes. ;)

Oh and optional wireless mouse, big screen, sound system, located at your OneLink docking stations, converts your ultraportable laptop into a workstation in less than 3 seconds. Omg does not get better than this! Pfff

I've had cute. And I've had professional and reliable. I much prefer professional and reliable. I only care if my next small laptop has the following features...
Iris Pro 5200 would be nice.
Matte IPS FHD Screen is a must-have.
Backlit keyboard is a must-have.
Minimum of 8GB RAM is a must-have (or upgradeable to such).
i7 Haswell is preferred - i5 is acceptable.
Ethernet along with three USB 3 ports is a must-have.
Latest WiFi is preferred.
Minimum 256GB SSD is preferred.
Weight below 4-lbs would be nice.

ThinkPad T440s is the best, no need to look at the rest. Ya you can maybe get same specs with other companies, but you will not get a OneLink docking, or the high durability of thus military spec tested laptop. Built tough price, but is actually considered conservative, by means of the greater longevity you get when you buy the best, and ThinkPad keyboards are the best tactile feel for laptops. I guess that is why ThinkPad is number one choice by business professionals...who demand the best.

"Unfortunately, the SKUs with NVIDIA graphics will be available in North America."
Wait only in NA can you get the dedicated GPU or the GPU upgrades won't be available in NA. On Anandtech they said the dedicated GPUs would not be coming to NA. I'm currently deciding if I want a T430 now or to wait the short time for the T440 but I won't want to wait if there are no dedicated GPUs. If the GPUs are available those Track Point buttons built into the touch pad might be a deal breaker anyway. They might work well but if they didn't perfect I would be quite disappointed.

Two issues I would like to see clarified and/or addressed in newer models:

(1)maximum memory for the T440 and T440s appears to be 12 GB at Lenovo website. Frankly, I have 16 GB now in my T430 and T530, and I am disappointed they have configured these newer motherboards with a limit of 12 GB.
Why would anyone who's using several (memory hogging) programs *not* want 16 GB of memory in an otherwise nearly perfect machine.
It appears the larger T540 series does not have these limitations, though I'm not sure from the website.

Second issue - I couldn't determine from their website if an optical drive is removable in the T440 or T440s or the T540 series, allowing for a bay adapter for a second drive. I have used a second drive for ~ 8 years (anyone reading this knows the possible reasons) in my Lenovos. I am concerned that the pursuit of the allmighty thinness may have gotten Lenovo into some of the form over function thinking already made laughable by a company with the pretentious address of "1 Infinity Way."